


Come Back

by Xie



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-18
Updated: 2012-06-18
Packaged: 2017-11-08 01:17:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/437530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xie/pseuds/Xie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Season Two fic, from Michael's point of view.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Come Back

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Cuddle Day 2012, with the theme of "Public Cuddling." Thanks to Jule for the beta.

I never really did figure out how Justin went from his mom telling Brian to never speak to him again to him living at the loft. I asked Brian, but he just gave me a look of disgust that implied it was so obvious even I should have been able to figure out. I don’t know how, since just a few days before Brian told me Jennifer was 100 percent right, and he wasn’t going to try to change her mind.

Either way, Justin was living at the loft, and spending all his time there, too. He never came near Babylon or Woody’s, or even the diner. When I saw him at Brian’s, he’d just sit there, twisting his right hand up in the fabric of whatever oversized shirt he had on, and not saying anything.

I was waiting for a to-go order at the diner one night when I heard Ma yelling at Brian. “You tell Sunshine to get his bubble butt over to my house for dinner Sunday night. He hasn’t been there once since… well, since.”

“You tell him,” Brian said, voice dripping with indifference. “You have the number.”

I wasn’t sure who told him, exactly, but he showed up with Brian the next Sunday night. He seemed okay – not his old self, but who could blame him for that? Just a little too quiet, really. And he kept tucking his hand into his waistband in a way that seemed really weird, until I realized it was to keep it from trembling.

“Fucking Chris Hobbes,” I hissed to my mother as I helped her pull the lasagna pan out of the oven. “Did you see Justin’s hand?”

“I saw it,” she said. “Poor Sunshine.”

I looked up and saw Brian glaring at us, while Justin tried to act like he was listening to what Uncle Vic was saying.

Melanie and Lindsay showed up then, with Gus, and we all sat down to eat. Gus kept crying, and I noticed Justin wasn’t eating.

“Oh!” My mom jumped up. “I forgot the ziti…”

I don’t really know what happened, but her chair fell over right at the same time the oven timer went off and Gus let out a particularly annoying wail, and the next thing I knew, Justin and Brian were gone.

We got the rest of the food onto the table, and I hesitated before I sat back down.

“Leave them alone,” Uncle Vic said. “They’ll be back.”

Lindsay sighed. “There was a time when I’d have figured they were outside getting high…”

“Or fucking,” Melanie said from the living room, where she was walking Gus back and forth, patting his back.

“Or both,” my mom said.

“But did you see how pale Justin was? And he was sweating…”

“Just leave them alone,” Uncle Vic repeated. “Let’s eat.”

So I sat down.

They still hadn’t come back when it was time for dessert, so this time I ignored Uncle Vic’s advice and went looking for them. I tried my old room… Justin’s old room… first, but it was empty. I thought maybe Brian had taken Justin home, but I found them in the backyard. Justin’s face was buried in Brian’s chest, and his shoulders were shaking, and Brian’s hand was cupped around the back of Justin’s neck. The look on his face was… well, I didn’t know what it was.

He looked frightened and angry, but he also looked so raw and so tender, I almost didn’t recognize him. I’d never seen him look like that in my life, and I’d seen him look a lot of ways. I’d seen him crying, for fuck’s sake.

I must have made a sound because he lifted his head. He just stared at me, daring me to say something, daring me to tell him to stop, or even have an opinion. And after a long, long time, he put his cheek back down on Justin’s hair, curled his hand tighter around his neck, and said something so quietly I couldn’t hear it.

I went back inside. “They don’t want dessert,” was all I said. They never did come back in.


End file.
